subject: Benefits Of Using A Pedometer - How Walking Can Improve Your Fitness [print this page] Research has shown that an hour of walking each day has proven to have immense benefits. Not only does it improve blood circulation and lower high blood pressure, it has even been shown to lower cancer risk. Indeed, it's an exercise that's not only inexpensive, it's also something that most anyone can do.
However, research has also shown that most of us do not walk too much. On any regular day, most individuals only take a maximum of about 2,000 steps. To achieve the desired results, fitness and health experts recommend 10,000 steps a day.
This seems like an impossible feat, considering the sedentary lifestyles that most people have in this day and age where people sit in front of their computers at work for 8 hours. It's obvious that people need to be motivated to keep their butts moving.
One simple device that has been developed to keep track of the steps we take everyday is the pedometer. Compared to other fitness equipment that require vast amounts of space, the pedometer is a cheap, clip-on electronic device that you attach to your belt on your waist/hip area so you can measure your daily steps.
This might be a lowly device that do nothing else but record the steps you take, but research has proven that it actually has immense benefits. For starters, studies have shown that those who wear pedometers were actually more motivated to keep moving. Previously sedentary individuals who where given a pedometer to measure their daily steps, were encouraged to become more active and as a result reported more energy and vigor in their daily activities.
Another huge benefit derived from the pedometer is that it motivates individuals to achieve their goals because it makes them measurable. If a person knew that his usual number of steps in a day is only a thousand and if he sets to achieve two thousand steps in two weeks, he can measure his success consistently on a daily basis because of the pedometer.
Finally, because you can take a pedometer with you, it also plays a vital role in revealing your current fitness level. As a result, you become motivated to walk if only to increase your stamina, get rid of stress and be able to keep up with your energetic toddler.
If employers become alarmed at the high rate of absenteeism among their employees due to hypertension and other heart-related disorders, they can simply give each one a pedometer. Employees are then able to gauge their fitness levels and are encouraged to keep fit. Over time, employees benefit from good health while employers get the advantage of increased employee productivity due to less absences, all thanks to the lowly pedometer.
The pedometer may be a simple device that, at first glance, seems to give no benefit to its users. But self-motivation and awareness of one's current fitness level are two most immense benefits derived from using this simple device. To sum it up, the pedometer jumpstarts a person's way to good health by measuring the steps he takes on a day-to-day basis.
